Article excerpt

As part of the Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools series, this volume is intended for educators, parents, and students concerned about bullying. The authors utilize a social-ecological framework for understanding bullying behavior which considers the interaction among the individual, family, peer group, school, and community factors that contribute to bullying/ victimization in the schools.

Swearer, Espelage, and Napolitano use their extensive clinical and research backgrounds in bullying/victimization to address commonly held myths about bullies and victims. They caution against using single models (e.g., social skills deficit model) to explain all bullying behavior. The authors effectively make a case for the need to view bullying and peer victimization as a societal issue rather than just an individual or school issue. The work of Smith (2007) and others is used to argue the need to acknowledge the adaptive aspects of bullying in our society when considering prevention efforts.

Those who are seeking to begin a bullying prevention or intervention program in their schools and those who are looking to find ways to build upon their existing programs will find a wealth of useful information in this book. The entire book is densely packed with the most up-todate research findings. Most importantly, these research findings are translated into creative yet practical suggestions for schools.

The authors promote the use of a data-based decision making model and include guidelines for evaluating the extent of bullying/victimization problems as well as suggestions for monitoring the effectiveness of prevention/intervention efforts. …